Preparing for Childbirth class

So our first childbirth class was last Wednesday. I thought the instructor was a bit flaky and disorganized, but she does seem to know her stuff. I hope to get more out of the future classes where we actually do stretches and stuff, as well as the hospital tour. She is supposed to talk to us about using the tub to labor or birth in too. We'll see. Tomorrow I plan on doing my "homework" for the week and write down everthing I eat and drink for 24 hours.

Tonight I went out and bought a "birthing" ball. I've been trying to pump the dang thing up, but the pump makes a whistling noise, which makes Roscoe crazy as he thinks its a squeaky toy. He barks and lunges towards the pump. Then I move and of course pull the pump out of the ball and let half the air I just spent all that time pumping in back out. They need to sell these things already blown up. At least it was only 10 bucks.

One of the the things we had to do for class last week was share our 5 biggest challenges and 5 biggest joys of pregnancy. The guys had to participate too, which was pretty much useless since they were all like "uhhhhhhhh....." Did I mention I'm fairly certain that we are the oldest couple in there? Most of the 11 others look about 22 years old. Anywho, while the joys are more important to me than the challenges, here are mine:

• Challenges - acid reflux, evil crotch pain, finding a bra that fits, fatigue, headaches
• Joys - seeing/hearing the baby at the doctors, feeling the baby move, seeing the growing bump (love the bump), pregnancy glow (my skin has totally been clear for 32 weeks), knowing there is a new life inside me that is part of me and part of John and yet entirely her own person